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Sunday, 13 November 2011

Yesterdays matches

Unfortunately in English culture, one result means everything and although the match against Spain was a terrific performance from England the masses now believe that we are unbeatable and better than Spain, resulting in the next world cup having our name on it already. Not to dull down the performance, I just don't think English fans should get carried away, it was one result on one day, that doesn't make or break a team it merely shows Spain are not invincible like many had thought.

That being said I do believe there were some outstanding performances from certain players which held together the team.

1) Scott Parker- deserved man of the match, put an absolute shift in, won tackles intercepted the ball well and I can only not once where he gave the ball away. Looked England's best player and one of the only ones who was at the pace with the Spanish. He must be drinking the Lucozade's because he worked tirelessly and without him I don't think we would have won.

2) Joleon Lescott- I have to admit I'm not the biggest fan of Joleon Lescott but he looked assured at centre back. He also pressured the spanish taking calculated risks to come forward when David Villa dropped off the advanced striking role, stopping him from being able to turn and shoot. He also read the game brilliantly and made some crucial interceptions throughout which broke the play up well and kept England from being swamped in the first half especially.

3) Ashley Cole- Another one who must have eaten his carbs and drank his lucozade because he really did work hard. He noticed the importance of getting forward when we had the chance and always seemed to be the quickest player on the pitch off the ball. In addition he didn't get carried away and had some pretty tough players to mark which he did excellently. Should we be surprised? No he is without doubt one of the best left backs in the world and he showed that yesterday.

I think England can take heart from this performance and the defensive side of the game looks solid currently so that is good. I just don't think the nation should get carried away in thinking we are better than Spain as we are a long way off that yet.

Wales Vs Norway

I only watched the first half and the end of the second half, but the improvement is Wales as a team is astonishing. Gary Speed has turned their negative mentality upside down and developed a formula that suits them excellently. Giving license to their star players Gareth Bale and Craig Bellamy, Wales now come across as a confident attacking national team. A lot of credit should be given to the hard work from Steve Morison who seemed to win nearly every ball yesterday and then hold it up to bring in their 3 star attacking players (Bellamy, Bale and Ramsey). A good performance especially as the only Norwegian goal was a howler from the keeper.

Ireland Vs Estonia

Well done to Ireland on a brilliant result, it looks like only a terrible performance can stop them making the Euro's now. I was surprised not to see Wes Hoolahan in the squad for the game after a brilliant year with Norwich, especially as it isn't just me who believes he is good enough. Wes has been shortlisted to the final 3 for the PFAI player of the year award. This being said you can't argue with results like that a 4-0 victory and a brilliant position to be in going into the 2nd leg.